The Record: Letters, Saturday, Feb. 15

With four or more times the normal crowd waiting to board NJ Transit trains following the Super Bowl, did anyone really expect no delays?

So far, I have not read anything relating to any fights, drunken passengers, arrests or anyone who was injured. And even with all the people fighting to get on the trains, no one was apparently pushed onto the tracks. Also, there were no gang-related issues or suspicious packages.

It seems to me that safety is more important than delays that were to be expected. And even with all the delays, it seems like everyone got home safely. With that in mind, it looks like NJ Transit didn't do such a bad job after all.

Rick Saltarelli

North Bergen, Feb. 11

Christie's problem is his arrogance

Regarding "How important is Bridgegate?" (Your Views, Feb. 10):

A letter writer recently suggested that we should move beyond minor problems like Bridgegate to focus on such bigger items as the state budget and the pension system, which is tottering toward insolvency.

The writer may well be tired of what some have characterized as "misbehavior" by our elected and appointed officials and wish to move on, but a historical perspective is needed.

It was just the same kind of "misbehavior" by then-Gov. Christie Whitman that put our pension system into its current difficulties. By using "surplus" funds in the pension coffers for other reasons, she took a pension system judged by actuaries as secure and well managed and turned it into one that is underfunded and threatened. She knew the effect this money grab would have, but despite a huge public outcry, she used the money for a one-time trick to help balance the state budget.

I know this to be true as I was one of the vocal pension fund members protesting on State Street in Trenton in 1994. Whitman's actions were not misbehavior. They were pure arrogance.

Governor Christie's actions in regard to the George Washington Bridge scandal and Sandy relief money are not to be seen as misbehavior either. They show pure arrogance. Such an attitude by any governmental official cannot be forgiven and overlooked.